#no.052123

[boissonsaumiel]

Look at my beauties! I blurred myself out of the reflection. I put in some Super-Kleer this morning (fining agent derived from shellfish) and it's already made a huge difference in clarity.

My second time using that fining agent. This time I actually measured it out properly with a beaker and a pipette (it comes in a blister pack sized for a 5-6gal batch).

In the larger jug is the mead where I left the mulling spices in way too long. The smaller jug is my root beer mead that I brewed with coconut water. It's actually the first mead I've made that tastes good at room temperature. The root beer spices infused perfectly. It's just the right level of sweet and has a nice kick. The other ones I've made tasted significantly better chilled.

I'm going to make it again to give to friends and family as holiday gifts, since it tastes pretty great even without aging. I got a bottle capper and some cool embossed vintage bottles on ebay (Sioux City Sarsparilla) to bottle it in.

[boissonsaumiel]

I ordered a stainless steel turkey baster, for two non-turkey-basting related purposes:

to more easily transfer samples of my brews into the beaker I use for hydrometer readings

to siphon liquid from bottles that are too full to fit my auto-siphon into without spilling

Months ago I tried ordering a glass turkey baster for these same purposes and immediately broke it. Lesson learned.

Today I'm adding my last packet of Super-Kleer to uh... a bunch of things. Yosemite Wildflower Honey Mead No.070723 Sage Blossom Honey Mead No.090123 Cactus Blossom Honey Mead No.092423. Those were all gallon batches but only one of them is still in a gallon bottle, so measuring out the correct amounts of the fining agent is a bit of a pain.

I mixed some of No.070723 with the last of the Arakkis batch (the one came out bitter because I way over-steeped the mulling spices). I think that's what I'll probably end up bringing to Thanksgiving dinner.

[boissonsaumiel]

After all the mulling spices I put in this mead, it seemed only fitting I name it Arrakis.

Not my best work.

It tastes a bit better now that it's cleared, but the bitterness from the over-steeping is still very, very present in a bad way.

I'm sipping a glass right now that I chilled in the fridge.

I feel a bit like I'm drinking liquid potpourri.

Perhaps aging might improve it? Spices lose their flavor over time when left on the shelf. I don't know if the same applies to spices preserved in alcohol.

I suppose I can use it to flavor other mead if the honey cake experiment doesn't work out.

I have *so much.*

The bottle in this pic is was sold as a ½gal bottle but I think it's actually holding closer to ⅔gal. The rest of the batch is distributed between an old whiskey bottle and two 1lb honey jars.

[boissonsaumiel]

Almost there!

[boissonsaumiel]

The coconut water mead stopped bubbling. Not sure if it actually hit its ABV tolerance or stalled because I put in so much extra honey. It tasted like honey mixed with brandy or whiskey. Really strong. Pretty good, actually, but sweeter than I like.

I racked it off the lees (siphoned it into a different container, leaving behind most of the dead yeast that settled at the bottom), then diluted it with some water and added some yeast to hopefully re-start fermentation and get it a little less sweet.

I also went ahead and added in the root beer spice blend. I'll taste it tomorrow to make sure I don't leave the spices in too long.

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Speaking of leaving in spices too long,

I'm probably going to have to toss my mulled mead. It tastes really...medicinal. I'm going to try egg white fining to see if I can remove some of the bitterness from the oversteeping before I completely give up on it.

I actually made some plain batches mid last month in case a batch I flavored ended up tasting too strong, but those batches aren't really large enough for the amount of dilution this batch would need to taste decent.

[boissonsaumiel]

Hmmm. Looks like my avocado blossom honey mead is going to finish fermenting before the mulled mead batch I started 2 weeks earlier.

I'm not going to rack the avocado mead. I'm going to try sur lie aging instead:

Preparation for sur lie aging begins as fermentation is wrapping up. The lees should be stirred up every two to three days for the last bits of fermentation. Once fermentation has ended continue to stir the lees once or twice each week for a period of six weeks or so. After that stir it up monthly. [source]

I plan to have some for my birthday this fall, and continue aging the rest until next summer.

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I am going to rack the mulled mead as soon as it stops fermenting. I want to free up that carboy for the Yosemite wildflower honey mead I've been dying to make. The honey is finally back in stock on the online store as of last week, and I'm ordering enough for two 1gal batches.

I got one more 1gal glass fermenter — a wide mouth one this time, since the two I have are both narrow top. Should come in handy for any melomels I make down the line. The pomegranate trees will be ready to harvest in the fall.

That's enough, I think.

No more equipment purchases for at least a year.

I cancelled my netflix subscription to help pay off all this crap (I've barely used it in the last two months anyway), and I've been doing extra gig work all week (music transcription services).